Nearly 2/3 of US teenagers under the age of 18 use YouTube to listen to music, more than any other medium

Among the issues dividing teenagers and their parents, add whether to listen to music on YouTube or on CD.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. teenagers under the age of 18 say they use Google Inc.’s video-sharing site to listen to music, more than any other medium, according to a new consumer survey from Nielsen Co., one of many challenges facing record companies as they transition into the digital world.

In addition to treating YouTube as a de facto free music service, young people said they are less inclined than those 18 years old and up to listen to CDs or the radio.

Neither age group reported making much use of Spotify AB, Rhapsody International Inc. or other on-demand streaming music services, though Pandora Media Inc.’s custom online radio service was among the five most-popular methods for both groups.

In fact, among adults, cassette tapes remain more popular than many online music services, or even vinyl records, despite the latter medium’s purported comeback in recent years. Nine percent of adult respondents said they listen to cassettes, more than Spotify (7%), LP records (6%), or music services from Yahoo Inc. (2%), AOL Inc. (2%), eMusic.com (1%) or Rhapsody (1%).

For its “Music 360” survey, Nielsen asked nearly 3,000 people how they listen to and discover music; the respondents weren’t necessarily self-identified music aficionados. The company hasn’t previously conducted a similar survey, so no comparable past data were available.

Among adults, the most popular ways to listen to music were radio (67%), CDs (61%), YouTube (44%), Pandora’s custom-radio service (32%) and Apple Inc.’s iTunes (29%).